Ryan Tannehill? Kirk Cousins?

Edition #487

Good morning!

Robert Saleh took a more balanced approach when talking about Zach Wilson yesterday. His nature as a coach and leader may have been to defend his man, but it seems as though the message has been received in relation to how he defends him. He still stuck with him, but admitted that things needed to improve and Zach had to play better.

Sometimes it’s the simple things. I want my coach to hold every player accountable. I know some will disagree, but I’ve seen enough All-22 footage of Zach missing wide-open targets to know that the Jets lost that game because of the QB. If Zach hits just a couple of those, the Patriots start dropping more players into coverage, which opens up more running lanes.

The Jet’s ground game didn’t stand a chance, they were running against stacked boxes all day as Bill knew Zach couldn’t beat them through the air. I saw quotes from Chiefs defenders today which basically said they know the Jets want to run the ball, so you’re probably going to see the exact same game plan on Sunday.

If things go south then maybe the Jets turn to Siemian against Denver, Saleh confirmed he’d be inactive on Sunday based on only just joining and having to learn the system. Which begs the question, why did it take two weeks for the Jets to sign a veteran after Aaron Rodgers went down? Did they really have that much faith in Zach Wilson? When it comes to the former #2 draft pick, it seems the Jets have a blindspot.

Could they go back into the market for another veteran though? The rumours have started circling.

We’re going to keep this to the injury report as there are a lot of reports circling the Jets and I want to put those into the main portion of the newsletter today.

Here is the report from Wednesday. As it stands, Tony Adams is the only starter who is in danger of missing the game against Kansas. He also missed the game against New England at the weekend.

For now, the Jets locker room is united. Everyone who’s spoken to the media has put out a united front in relation to the quarterback situation and Zach Wilson. A couple of bad games are not enough to fracture a locker room, but a loss on Sunday night with a poor performance by Zach, followed by Saleh continuing to praise him may be enough to send a tremor.

The players genuinely believed they were Super Bowl contenders with Rodgers, so now there is a difficulty in switching mindset. It would take something remarkable and unprecedented for the Jets to make a championship run, and on Sunday we’ll get a sense of how close or how far we’re away from the AFC elite, with the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs coming to town.

Right now we’re 1-2. We’re at the start of the race, but we’re also running with a 213 lb weight strapped to our back, and that’s the performance of Zach Wilson. The further this goes, the more that weight takes effect and the more you want to cut it loose. The players aren’t to the situation and we’ve seen this story before, if we continue to lose then the divide will appear, it nearly always does when there is such a glaring weakness.

So what’s the plan for the QB spot?

In an ideal world, Zach starts showing that improvement that Coach Saleh continues to bang on about in practice. I don’t think Zach is the answer, I actually think he’s one of the worst QBs we’ve had, and the statistics back that up. But, nothing would give me more pleasure than seeing him break out against the Chiefs, I’d rather the Jets be good than me be right. I have absolutely no desire to be right, I just want the Jets to be good. When you write about a team every day, writing about failure becomes taxing.

So what if Zach performs against the Chiefs the way he’s performed over the first 25 games of his career? No QB has a lower QBR between 2021-23 than Wilson’s 34.5, this season he’s down at 27 for QBR and is completing a career-low 52.4% of his passes. He’s also thrown double the interceptions to touchdowns. The improvements that he’s made in his mechanics, and he has made improvements in his mechanics are not translating through to production on the field, and this sport is about production.

So if Zach bombs, in comes Trevor Siemian, a small upgrade but an upgrade nonetheless. He can get you a win in Denver, but I’m not sure he has the talent to get you to the playoffs, It’s a little hit-and-miss. So what options do the Jets have?

Kirk Cousins